190 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. (Jan. 12, 
real clue for correlation on paleontological grounds—affinity only, 
through a few species in that richly peopled sea, being shown by 
our succeeding Rheetic beds. 
It is not, however, without interest that we should reewamine the 
Sutton, Portcaul, Bendrick, and Barry beds, on the coast of Glamor- 
ganshire, where St.-Cassian and Muschelkalk types occur in a white 
calcareous breccia or conglomerate resting immediately upon the 
Carboniferous limestone and below the zones of Ammonites angu- 
latus and A. planorbis. 
The Madreporaria are truly significant, and of high Mesozoic 
antiquity, even admitting the great vertical range or persistency of 
many St.-Cassian corals in time and their diffusion in space. 
Chronologically, however, we have much to learn relative to the 
true succession and correlation of the Triassic and Rheetic series of 
this country with reference to that of Western and Central Europe. 
On purely physical grounds we have also much to do ere we can 
attempt to parallel the Muschelkalk (Calcaire Coquillien) with beds 
in the western or midland counties of England, although we may 
attempt it, and look for its equivalent in the calcareous breccia or 
conglomerate at the top of the Bunter, and base of the Keuper 
series In the centre of Hngland—the position in time held by the 
dolomitic or reptilian conglomerate of the Bristol area. 
That the calcareous breccia above mentioned should be classed 
with the Keuper rather than the Bunter is, I think, clearly esta- 
blished. 
The chief explanation, however, of the probable reason of the 
absence of the Muschelkalk in Britain would appear to be the received 
fact that the “close of the Bunter-Sandstone period in England 
was accompanied by a general elevation into dry land of the whole 
of the Triassic area, in which condition it remained throughout the 
period of the Muschelkalk”’*,—this gap, unconformity, or break in 
the British series of the Trias, being represented on the Continent 
by the highly fossiliferous “‘ calcaire coquillien,” or Muschelkalk. 
Mr. Hull throws out the suggestion + that the St.-Cassian beds, 
which contain so large an assemblage of organic remains, both of 
Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and peculiar forms, in somewhat abnormal 
positions, because there is still some uncertainty regarding their 
affinities to the British series, may not improbably, in different 
portions, “represent a continuous series of calcareous deposits, 
representing both the Permian, Triassic, and Rhetic beds of 
England.” 
The absence, however, in the dolomitic conglomerate of the Bristol 
area, of all organic remains except the two genera of Dinosauria, 
and those at present confined to it, forbids all attempts at correla- 
tion based upon paleontological research. 
* Hull, Mem. Geol. Surv. England and Wales, “ Trias. and Perm. Rocks of 
the Midland Counties,” 1869, p. 106. 
i tpap.0: 
